The Newest Technological Trend in the Art MarketThe Newest Technological Trend in the Art Market

On Nov. 13, 2018, Christie’s sold the Barney A. Ebsworth Collection (the Ebsworth Collection) for a total of $317,801,250, becoming the largest art sale ever to be recorded on a single blockchain.¹ Taking a step back, you may be wondering: first, what’s a blockchain, and second, why is a blockchain even relevant when discussing an estate art sale? Well, as was seen with the auction of the Ebsworth Collection, blockchain is the latest technological trend breaking through to the art world, and we’ll explain why. 

Blockchain Basics

Blockchain, also known as distributed ledger technology, is “an append-only data structure, consisting of a chain of data blocks linked together by cryptographic hashes.”² These types of chains “were first develope...